In an age of lip-synching, flash-in-the-pan pop stars who quickly burn out and fade into oblivion, it's reassuring to see time-tested singers still on the road after more than 40 years.

The Pines Theater at Northampton's Look Park will welcome a pair of musical veterans this week - Tom Jones and Gordon Lightfoot. Jones will perform on Tuesday with Lightfoot set to hit the stage the following night.

Gordon Lightfoot

For Jones, whose career stretches back to the pubs of his native Wales in late 1950s, live performances are part of his being.
"I love to sing. If I have a night off and I go out to a club, I'll get up on stage with the band and sing. It's not like a job," said Jones, 69, said in an interview from his tour bus, which was making its way from New York to Philadelphia.
Likewise the appeal of performing has never dimmed for the 70-year-old Lightfoot, who described himself in an interview from Toronto as "29 from the neck up."

Though the sexy strutting Jones and mellow guitar strumming Lightfoot's styles may differ, both men continue to record new material and mix past and present songs at their shows.

Jones, who hit it big in the mid 1960s with "It's Not Unusual" and "She's a Lady," has scored on the British charts in recent years with "Sex Bomb" and his cover of Prince's "Kiss." Last year, he released "Sugar Daddy," penned by U2's Bono and the Edge.

"I asked Bono if he would write me a song at a club in Dublin. He said he wanted to write it about me... He told me that if I didn't like it, it was no big deal - he'd just kill himself," Jones recalled with a laugh.

Jones loved the song and is confident fans will appreciate his new songs weaved in with his older hits. "'Delilah' works along side 'Kiss' very well with my band. I can do 'Green Green Grass of Home' and 'What's New Pussycat?' along with the new songs, and it works," he said.

But as bands from the Rolling Stones and Steely Dan to Kiss and Metallica have learned, longevity involves a certain discipline that is seemingly at odds with the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Put another way, playing 70 shows a year at age 70 is serious business, according to Lightfoot.

"There's a method to what we do. We go out for 10 to 18 shows a stretch, for about 21 days in various areas," Lightfoot explained. "We'll go out west every three years; we go to New York City" and the Northeast more often, he said.

True, Lightfoot no longer travels in a green Ford station wagon with three band members and sound equipment crammed in the back. These days, the singer criss-crosses North America with a 12-person touring team, an airplane for the band, a bus for the road crew and trailer for the sound system.

But the standards of the band and the audiences are higher, keeping pace with rising ticket prices.

Whether at 1,000-seat venues like the Pines or 7,000-seat sheds like Wolf Trap in Washington, D.C., things like sound quality, tuning, pacing and song selection matter more than in the 1970s.
"That's part of the job that we love - getting great sound, or absolute tuning," the singer said.
Song selection can get complicated; set lists have to be rotated to keep the band fresh, but not without disappointing fans. "It takes a long time to figure it out," Lightfoot said.

It's especially difficult if you're Lightfoot, whose back catalog is packed with radio favorites like "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown," "Carefree Highway" and the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

When not touring or tending to his publishing business in Toronto, the former high school track star works out regularly at a local gym. An aneurysm nearly killed him in May, 2002; he endured multiple surgeries and did not perform a full show again until November, 2004.

The point is not to be in shape for touring, but to be strong at every show, Lightfoot said.

The sentiment is echoed by Jones, who is as well known for his lady-killer looks as his incredible voice. He regrets having been forced to drop his ritualistic hour-long daily runs because of knee problems.

"The doctor told me to avoid pounding the pavement," Jones said. "The great thing about touring these days is the hotels have fitness centers where you can work out."